Gareth Bale may not make his Chinese Super League debut anytime soon - even if he completes his move to Jiangsu Suning.

Bale is set to put pen to paper on a staggering £1m-per-week deal with Jiangsu as he leaves Real Madrid after six seasons.

But agreeing the move does not guarantee Bale will take to the field in the Chinese Super League for Jiangsu when they play their first game after the mid-season transfer window closes on Wednesday.

Suning, the electrical retailer who have owned the club since late 2015, are also majority shareholders in Serie A giants Inter Milan and the prospect remains that Bale could move to the 18-time Italian champions on loan.

Gareth Bale of Real Madrid (Image: AMA/Getty)

A precedent exists for such a switch, with Australia international defender Trent Sainsbury following the same path in 2017.

Sainsbury was signed by the club from Dutch side PEC Zwolle ahead of the 2016 CSL season as Jiangsu sought to take advantage of regulations permitting teams to field four foreign players, on the proviso one came from an Asian Football Confederation member nation. As an Australian, Sainsbury fulfilled that criterion.

However, just days before the start of the campaign, a Chinese Football Association directive to scrap the Asian player slot left Sainsbury's future in doubt and ahead of the following season the central defender shifted to Serie A on a six-month loan deal.

Zinedine Zidane and Gareth Bale (Image: X01095)

The path linking the clubs has also been taken in the opposite direction, with Italian winger Eder joining Jiangsu from Inter last year while defender Miranda became Jiangsu's latest recruit, signing at the end of last week after Inter annulled his contract.

With the traffic flow between Milan and Nanjing increasing, the prospect of Bale running out at the San Siro rather than the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre remains a very real possibility